1. What are the things you can do to help your dog heal and detox after a surgery?
Suppose your dog had a fatty tumor removed and it sounds like it’s filled up with fluid where you had to go back and put drain tubes in and all of that good stuff. So, what else can we do to help him heal and detox? What I would say is that you need to look at getting through kind of what’s going on, and what’s going on is you’ve got some pain medications on board that are helping you help your pup stay comfortable. You do need to help with the liver because they’re going to create some issues as far as the carprofen and the tramadol. You can also use super simple thing which is milk thistle. If it’s a poodle fairly tiny, use something in the order of about 75 milligrams of milk thistle daily. I’d use that along with the medications and then for another two weeks afterwards.
The other thing you will want to do once everything is healed up, is start doing passive range of motion movement, stretching massage over the area because the concern is that area can kind of structure down and scar down which we want to some degree, but not to the point where it ends up limiting movement because that’s kind of the reason that you got the surgery done in the first place – because this thing was in the way. Unfortunately, where it is, is a common problem post – surgery. If this thing is of a big size on a 6 or 10 – pound dog, that’s a big space to fill and that just happens with time, so using wraps over that to keep everything compressed will help.
You could consider using laser once everything is healed up, but for right now it’s not a great idea. The other thing you can do is use Epsom salt compresses. Obviously, while the wound is still fresh and the incision lines are healing, you don’t want to use something super wet but you can use a fairly dump compress at a little bit more than tepid temperature to help remove some of the swelling and pull the gross stuff through the skin. That’s another detox method we often forget about. The other thing I would certainly do too is that anytime you take an NSAID, you’re whacking the gut microbiome so I would definitely go back on probiotics on a full daily dose for a month until everything sort of settles back up and then you can titrate back down.
2. What causes the loss of coordination in dogs?
Generally, the loss of coordination is either vestibular disease or sadly, centrally mediated disease. Meaning to say, something is going on in the brain itself. We call it old dog vestibular syndrome. You can try meclizine which you can buy as bonine over the counter and it’s usually a 25 milligrams tablet. I think for a large sized dog, you can try a quarter tablet twice daily or up to three times daily to see if that helps. Susan says that they give him a shot of pain killers and muscle relaxants that really messed him up.
3. Is mono feeding a good long – term idea?
I don’t think this is a good long – term idea. I mean, the way you’re planning to do it is to rotate through foods in a routine basis. I think the idea kind of comes from a lot of different fasting regimens from ayurvedic medicine on through whatnot. Basically, give the gut a rest. I don’t think this is a good long – term strategy for a healthy dog.
The idea is to give the gut some super simple food to eat so that when you are in this process of detoxing, your body doesn’t really have to work hard. I think that’s a reasonable thing to do from time to time. Ghee is promoted as the really good stuff but butyric acid is indeed helpful for the microbes and things of that nature. I think the thing with food is that we tend to make these decisions about food based on kind of whatever the flavor of the month diet is. A lot of it is figuring out what works well with that individual person or that individual animal. What is better is to have periods of fasting. Maybe you have a day where they just don’t eat all day or they just don’t eat breakfast and then have a light supper in the evening. That’s a strategy that’s been recommended.
Meat is difficult to digest. However, these guys are omnivores and so I think it’s important to have that in their diet at least partially. What I would do is to continue to offer a wide variety of foods in balance and maybe have a 2 or 3 of fasting or maybe have 2 or 3 days where you just feed rice or you just feed the mung bean and the rice mixture just to kind of help the gut rest for a little bit. I think there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that but if we start mono feeding specific foods so that the gut does one thing or another, then we’re going to train the gut to be out of balance and that’s kind of what my objections to this would be.
There is a group that Christine Chambreux is part of that recommends mono feeding. I think the jury is still out on it. Honestly, I’m not sure that it’s a great lifelong program. What is probably better is to look at what is in season and feed that instead of feeding tomatoes in January which is not a normal thing to have unless you live in a tropical climate, but dark leafy greens, butternut squashes, and things of that nature is. We get used to kind of being able to feed kind of whatever we would like when we go to the grocery store in the US and we really have no idea for the most part what’s still in season but I think that wisdom of all of the ancient traditions of medicine is a valid one. That’s my sort of rambling answer but the short concise version is feed in season if you can figure out what seasonal vegetables are for your area and have maybe a day of rest at least once a week or maybe once a quarter. There’s the idea of fasting – mimicking diet where you feed really simple foods and lower calories for about 5 days and while you’re not truly fasting, you are reducing the effort of the gut significantly so that your body can go through and produce the same benefits of fasting. I hope that’s helpful.
4. Will meclizine make dogs sleepy?
Sometimes yes, but often no. I think they sleep because finally things are out of whack in their brains. With vestibular syndrome, when it’s one side or the other, you’ll see a head tilt and usually you’ll see nystagmus in the eyes either back and forth or rotary which is typically more indicative of the central disease. But sometimes if we have both of the cochlea affected with vestibular syndrome, you won’t see any nystagmus because both sides are out of whack for lack of a better description, so sometimes when they take meclizine, we’ll see them sleep just because they’re feeling so happy to not be fighting the dizziness constantly.
I mentioned in the CrockPet broadcast that we have the turmeric at buy one get this 50% off the second jar that’s going for a bit. The other thing that’s super exciting is that standard process has actually given me the permission to sell their products directly through the store so we’re still continuing to work through the legal process but we should have that good to go within the next week.
Lastly, all of you the are Ipet’s Ally members should have got an email from Hanna that says welcome to Ipet’s Ultimate. That is what I have for you this week, and I’m doing this because you guys have been my faithful followers and you’ve really helped me stay in business and grow. I appreciate that deeply. Having said that, if you can take the time to do a video testimonial on us, that would be a tremendous help. Bettina was kind enough to do that. The other thing too is that you should be able to renew at whatever place you came in on that’s through our subscription service recharge so you probably got that. You should be renewing at whatever price you came in on but 24. 95 a month or less. If you’ve got questions about that, as always, email Hanna and she will get you helped out with that. Until then, take good care. Remember, your pet’s best health starts in the bowl. Thanks! I’m Dr. Ruth Roberts, your pet’s ally.
